J.R. Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=34094.msg316456#msg316456 I started out months ago with the above hardware thread (thanks again for the help there) and I'm finally moving in to build phase! Here's the final equipment I ended up with (though still waiting on delivery for the CPU, RAM and Flash Drive): -LIAN LI PC-Q25B Case -SILVERSTONE SFX ST30SF 300W PSU -ASUS H87I-PLUS Motherboard -INTEL I3 4150 -SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Now I have some questions on initial setup... First and foremost, should I install V6 or V5? From what I recall, V6 was supposed to move out of Beta in 3/4 of last year around Oct-Nov. What's the deal there on the delay and consensus on version to install? Is V6 99% there and just sorting out niggling details or is it still a ways off? I'm currently backing up my QNAP mirrored 2X2TB drives on to two separate 1TB drives in USB enclosures and have a third 2TB drive I will be using in my unRAID server. Once I get unRAID installed/running on the thumb drive, what's the best/easiest way to move everything over? Can I start with just the one spare 2TB drive and move everything over from the existing QNAP (NIC will be faster than USB 2.0 from the externals) and then clear/format and add the two QNAP drives (and the 160GB Cache drive) in after or does unRAID require a minimum 2 drives? 3 drives? I could yank one of the redundant QNAP drives if two are required but I can't seem to find documentation on that anywhere. Otherwise, any helpful hints or tips on setup? It will largely be used as a media (movies, music, photos) server to a WDTV Live and a W8 PC but any recommended plugins? Subsonic interests me as I'd love to listen to my high res audio collection at work and I'll be installing Transmission but otherwise I'm not sure what else I'll "need" until someone informs me of how awesome something is...lol. Lastly, print server...is there a solution there...? Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 This is very similar to my build. If I were starting from scratch I would go ahead with the current v6 beta because you can start out with your drives as XFS instead of ReiserFS. Also, despite the apprehension of some about switching from the old style plugins to docker for addons, docker is probably easier to use and more reliable than plugins, and since it is new to you anyway, might as well go ahead. I think the NAS functionality of the current v6 beta is just as stable as v5 and has some additional capability built-in that you could only get as addons in v5. Moving things over the network from the QNAP is probably the easiest. There might be some speed advantage to mounting those drives into unRAID and doing the copy but that would be more complicated. You don't mention parity. That is sort of the point with unRAID. You can run unRAID with just 1 drive and add others later, but you should plan on using one of your 2TB drives as parity. And remember, no NAS is its own backup regardless of parity, so any critical files should have at least one other copy somewhere else. Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 Thanks Trurl. Yeah I kind of assumed for my currently pretty basic NAS needs that V6 is probably fine. I'd imagine for guys more on the bleeding edge and using their UR servers like digital Swiss army knives, there's probably more issues with it currently. But you know what they say about assuming... It seems I will have to look in to "docker" as this is the first I've heard of it... Point me in a direction? Is there a "how to"/instructional YouTube vid etc? Yes, one of the three 2TB drives will be a parity drive. Though I've read it's a LOT faster to dictate that AFTER first moving your data over to one of the other drives and letting unRAID sort out the parity after the fact. Absolutely on the backup One of multiple reasons I'm backing everything up on those external 1TB USB drives. ...print server? Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Dockers are Linux containers, sort of one-app virtual machines. They are not an unRAID idea, but we can use them in unRAID with v6. There is a whole subforum here dedicated to docker. Also user smdion has written a good tutorial linked in his sig. Parity does slow down writing so for the initial move leaving it out is often done. Don't know about print server. I remember seeing an unMenu pkg for a print server but never used it and it doesn't seem available for 64bit v6. Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 Yeah.... I've built numerous Windows computers and did basic setup of my QNAP, home network etc but I know pretty much nothing about Linux/programming so there's a bit of a learning curve for me here...lol It's a good thing I like learning new things! A searching I shall go... Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I've picked up most of my limited Linux knowledge since building my unRAID nearly 4 years ago. Not much is really needed depending on what you want to do. Probably never need to know any Linux just to use the dockers people here have already built. Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 Sure, but then I still need to figure out stuff like this which is a bit over my head: https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/70346-plex-media-server-wdtv-no-streaming/ I'm still not 100% whether I should install Plex as I don't really have a clear idea of how it works with things like my WDTV (or my Android devices for that matter). Like I said. Learning curve. Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Plex does a few things: 1) It indexes your media collection (it gets you movie descriptions, covers, subtitles); 2) It is a client/server application, this means that you need a plex client to work with it. For your WDTV is has no added benefit, there is no client forit 3) You can run a plex client on your tv (selected models), on your phone, on a your chromebook, on basically every webclient. 4) Plex will "transcode" your video, meaning that video that cannot be played on a specific device will be changed to a format that device can read so it can play (in the plex client) 5) Plex allows for seamless viewing, meaning you can start watching on your iphone ,and then continue where you left the movie on your pc; 6) Plex allows for syncing media locally, meaning that it can automatically download movies / series to your phone when you are on wifi, allowing you to view them from your phone without an internet connection. Plex for me is great specially for that last option. Quote Link to comment
jevans04 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I'm still not 100% whether I should install Plex as I don't really have a clear idea of how it works with things like my WDTV (or my Android devices for that matter). Like I said. Learning curve. My recommendation (as a former WDTV user): 1) Install Plex on your server 2) Buy AppleTV devices for all your TVs 3) Install PlexConnect on your server to allow the AppleTVs to play media from Plex 4) Install the Plex client on your Android devices 5) Gather up all your WDTVs devices and deposit them in the nearest garbage bin (or donate them to friends like I did) 6) Enjoy Plex and wonder how you ever lived without it. Seriously. Watching videos using a WDTV compared to using Plex is like using a quill and ink well to write a letter compared to using a computer word processor. Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 I'm still not 100% whether I should install Plex as I don't really have a clear idea of how it works with things like my WDTV (or my Android devices for that matter). Like I said. Learning curve. My recommendation (as a former WDTV user): 1) Install Plex on your server 2) Buy AppleTV devices for all your TVs 3) Install PlexConnect on your server to allow the AppleTVs to play media from Plex 4) Install the Plex client on your Android devices 5) Gather up all your WDTVs devices and deposit them in the nearest garbage bin (or donate them to friends like I did) 6) Enjoy Plex and wonder how you ever lived without it. Seriously. Watching videos using a WDTV compared to using Plex is like using a quill and ink well to write a letter compared to using a computer word processor. Funny, I quite like our WDTV. Very few complaints. (We're also a no Apple house...lol). Can the ATV play .flac files yet? Sounds like Plex isn't really for me as the WDTV already retrieves media info so other than transcoding to our portable devices (which we really don't use for that) I don't see much need. If anything I'll probably just re-encode stuff for the rare times we need it portable or get the occasional oddball format etc. What are you guys using for a backup solution on unRaid? I just ordered the below dock for just that. Crashplan? Also anyone have experience using version 6's USB 3.0 in that scenario? How's that working? http://www.amazon.ca/Offline-Inateck-External-Function-Tool-free/dp/B00N1MAMB6/ref=sr_1_12?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1421085724&sr=1-12&keywords=usb+3.0+3.5+inch+enclosure Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 What are you guys using for a backup solution on unRaid? I just ordered the below dock for just that. A docking station can work fine, but requires that you manually do the backups and switch disks as needed. The simplest approach (what I use) is another UnRAID server. Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I use an external enclosure with USB3 and eSATA. USB3 is great for transferring data in v6, but eSATA might be more useful for preclears. Since I have limited slots this has been a good option for me. Actually, my build is similar to yours. Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 What are you guys using for a backup solution on unRaid? I just ordered the below dock for just that. A docking station can work fine, but requires that you manually do the backups and switch disks as needed. The simplest approach (what I use) is another UnRAID server. So Crashplan has no ability to select specific folders and automatically update only changed files? There's nothing? So manually selecting folders and copying/overwriting them is the only "solution"? Somebody should get on that... Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Crashplan can work nicely if you have adequate bandwidth ... but for many UnRAID servers with many TB of data and typical internet upload speeds it's not practical. Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Crashplan can work nicely if you have adequate bandwidth ... but for many UnRAID servers with many TB of data and typical internet upload speeds it's not practical. I don't want to back up to the cloud, I want to back up to external drives connected via USB 3.0. Bandwidth shouldn't be an issue. Is there no software / "docker" that allows for scheduled backup to external drives? I have a hard time believing I'm the first person to think of this... Quote Link to comment
Kryspy Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 J.R. Play 'ol fashioned rsync can be scheduled in a cron job to perform a backup. I use CrashPlan combined with local backups to rotating disks for some critical data. Kryspy Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Okay so Rsync is better than CrashPLan for backing up critical data to external drives over USB 3.0 via unRAID, correct? From some quick Googling it looks like Rsync is very much Linux/script dependent (which again, I know zero of). Is there nothing with a GUI? So why is it better than CrashPlan...? Perhaps I should start a new thread on this.... Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Tried to plug in my third (1. year old but until then unused) 2TB WD Red and it fizzled and poofed smoke at me... Looks like a warranty return...lol Quote Link to comment
J.R. Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Just ordered a HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB drive for $179 at Newegg.ca. Good price for anyone (Canadian) interested. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912 promo code CEMCAKKX25, ends 1/25 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.